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| Robin at Riverside Country Park |
2012 was not a
brilliant bird watching year for me with only 130 spieces seen, some 32 down on
the previous year. The continual dull and wet weather definitely put a damper
on the hobby for me as well as a serious reduction of photographic opportunities. However with a New Year
came a new start and although I have not been out Bird Watching as such, Wendy and I
have been out for walks most days with camera and binoculars (and once with a telescope - but it was still a walk NOT Bird Watching even though we then stood for an hour watching birds). All pictures in this post were with my Canon 400D + 100-400mm
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| Waxwings - Tescos, Whitstable |
New Years Day saw us visiting friends in Whitstable and
whilst there we took a short stroll to Tescos Car Park where over the last few
weeks some Waxwings had been seen. Soon after we arrived in a car park devoid
of all birdlife except a rather bold Herring Gull, a small flock of 70+ Waxwings gathered in a tree before flying off.
Unlike my previous sightings at this venue they did not stay to feed. Fortunately a sunny
day provided a few nice photos. I understand a smaller flock is still there.
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| Waxwings - Tescos, Whitstable |
On 2nd January We went for a walk along the
Medway at East Barming, the day was dull and drizzly with a heavily overcast
sky turning from frequent showers to constant rain. We started walking West
along the river which was high, turgid, fast flowing and a horrible muddy brown colour. There
was a reasonable amount of bird activity from small numbers of Goldfinch,
Chaffinch, Blackbirds, Robins, Blue Tits and Great Tits inhabiting the bushes, whilst
the river itself was empty except for the odd Moorhen along and on the opposite
bank.
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| Chaffinch - Riverside Country Park |
After half a mile due to the worsening weather we returned, on the way
back we added a Sparrow Hawk and a Cormorant to the day list. Before leaving we
checked the woods to the East where a mixed flock of Redwing and Fieldfare were found in a couple of the taller trees
together with a large number of Wood Pigeons scattered among the rest. A small flock of Long Tailed Tits were sheltering in the woods though still constantly on the move. Other sightings
on the day included Carrion Crow, Wren, Starling and House Sparrow.
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| Carrion Crows (silhouette) - Leybourne Lakes |
The 3rd January was another heavily overcast day
so we stayed local and went to Leybourne
Lakes. Ocean (Tescos) Lake provided
sightings of Cormorants, Mute Swans, Mallards, Coots, Moorhens, Greylag Geese,
Canada Geese, Great Crested Grebe and what I believe were Aylesbury Ducks. We
strolled on towards Streamside Lake
when we saw this female Kestrel sitting in a tree over the footpath.
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| Female kestrel - Leybourne Lakes |
We took a look at the Dipping (Round) Pond, but only a few
Coots were seen however some Long Tailed Tits were performing at the edge of
the pond, if only the sun had been out to show their full splendour in the
photos.
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| Long Tailed Tit - Leybourne Lakes |
We took the path between Streamside and Railway Lakes, in
Railway lake we saw a pair of Dabchicks swimming among the many Tufted Ducks
that were there whilst in Streamside we saw Shovelers, Gadwalls and Black
Headed Gulls along with a single Pochard, we were also fortunate enough to see
a Kingfisher flying low over the water near the west bank.
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| Female Tufted Duck - Leybourne lakes |
During the walk we had also added Blackbird, Chaffinch,
Carrion Crow, Collared Dove, Fieldfare, Goldfinch, Heron (flying overhead),
Jackdaw, Jay, Magpie, Wood Pigeon, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Great Spotted
Woodpecker to the days list.
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| Collared Dove - Riverside Country Park |
The 4th January was yet another gloomy overcast
day with the added excitement of a chill in the air but undaunted we spent 2
hours of it at Riverside Country Park in Gillingham, the tide was out and a lot
lower than I have seen it for some time – somewhat in contrast to the high
level of the Medway we had seen at east Barming.
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| Robin - Riverside Country Park |
We started off at the sunken
pond finding Collared Doves, Wood Pigeons, Great Tits, a Robin, a couple of
Dunnocks and several Moorhens.
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| Moorhen - Riverside Country Park |
Next we moved West along the shoreline where I was happy to
see a number Redshank on the mudflats.
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| Redshank - Riverside Country Park |
A scour of the muddy estuary towards
Kingsnorth Power Station revealed Curlews, Shelduck, Oystercatchers, Black
Headed Gulls, Herring Gulls and a couple of Grey Plovers, also in one of the
gullies were a large number of Teal. We followed the path West until it turns
South again from here a scan of the mudflats gave us some Dunlin, Wigeon, Carrion
Crow, Lapwing and a sole Greenshank near enough to photograph.
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| Greenshank - Riverside Country Park |
In addition, nearby on
its own was an Avocet with a missing left foot who was continually struggling so as not to
sink into the mud.
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| Avocet - Riverside Country Park |
Further out in the river were some Brent Geese and a number
of Cormorants whilst watching them was a Lesser Black Backed Gull.
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| Dunnock - Riverside Country Park |
We returned to the car park via the woodland walk which
produced sightings of Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Long Tailed
Tit, Magpie, Jay, Long Tailed Tit, Green Woodpecker and Great Spotted
Woodpecker.
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker - Riverside Country Park |
The four days had only brought us
55 species, but as this was 42% of my 2012 total I was more than happy, in
addition despite the very poor light on 3 of the days I did still manage to get
some nice shots.
